Some translations have the word, ‘burden’, instead of prophecy, Zechariah 12:1 / Zechariah 9:1 / Malachi 1:1. The word ‘burden’ in Hebrew is ‘massa’ and it means ‘to lift up’. Although the N.I.V. and other translations use the word, ‘prophecy’ it simply means that Zechariah is going to lift up his voice to speak the Word of God to the nation of Israel.
Here we find the Lord encouraging His people by reminding them if He can ‘lay the foundation of the earth’, Zechariah 12:1 / Job 38:4-7 / Amos 4:13 / Amos 5:8, then He’s certainly more than capable of protecting His people, Matthew 16:18. He’s certainly more than capable of protecting His people as He is the One who placed the human spirit within us, Zechariah 12:1 / Genesis 2:7 / Psalm 51:10 / Hebrews 12:9. When we die, our human spirit goes back to God who gave it, Ecclesiastes 12:7.
The nations would gather in order to drink from the cup of Jerusalem, thinking that it contained sweet wine, Zechariah 12:2. However, when they drank from the cup, they would reel from the calamity that God would bring upon them, Zechariah 12:2 / Isaiah 51:17 / Isaiah 51:21-23.
God wouldn’t allow His people to be overcome until the day set for the outpouring of His Spirit. Once the Spirit had been poured out, then the nation of Israel that rejected the Messiah would come to an end. On ‘that day’, Zechariah 12:3, that is, in the days of the Messiah, is when these things will happen. ‘That day’ is mentioned fourteen times throughout Zechariah 12-14.
Coffman, in his commentary, says the following, concerning the word ‘that day’, Zechariah 12:3.
‘Zechariah included among the events of the last days everything from Pentecost to the Judgment. These are all included in this chapter under the title, ‘on that day’, an expression repeated in Zechariah 12:3-4 / Zechariah 12:6 / Zechariah 12:8-9 / Zechariah 12:11.’
The ‘immovable rock’, Zechariah 12:3, is used as a metaphor for the church and those who try to move it, can’t and injure themselves in trying to do so, Matthew 21:44 / Luke 20:18. The church is founded upon the eternal Rock of truth, it’s the little stone cut out of the mountain without hands that will fill the earth, Daniel 2:34-35. It’s the stumbling stone for racial Israel, it’s the stone which the builders rejected, Matthew 21:42 / Matthew 21:44.
It appears that on that day, God ‘will strike every horse with panic and its rider with madness’, Zechariah 12:4 / Exodus 15:1. In other words, this will be a great battle against the church because the Gospel requires obedience to the Messiah.
God says He ‘will keep a watchful eye over Judah’, Zechariah 12:4, meaning God would look with favour on His people, He would look with favour on Jerusalem until the new Jerusalem was brought forth, Zechariah 12:5 / Revelation 21:1-27, and then the old Jerusalem and everything it stood for would come to an end.
Zechariah uses the firepot and the flaming torch as metaphors, Zechariah 12:6, and he uses them to explain that the rulers of Judah would participate in the continuation of Jerusalem, Zechariah 12:6. They would be like a small fire that would set an entire forest on fire and they would be like a flaming torch thrown into dry sheaves, Zechariah 12:6.
In other words, physical Jerusalem is going to struggle until the spiritual Jerusalem came into existence with the coming of the Messiah, Matthew 13:36-43. God’s people will be able to overcome the devil and everything he throws at them, Ephesians 6:16 / Galatians 6:16.
Coffman, in his commentary, says the following.
‘Some are still waiting for God to do this ‘literally’ in some kind of a millennial kingdom with Jerusalem as the earthly capital of it. The Christ made it plain enough for all who will hear, ‘My kingdom is NOT OF THIS WORLD’, John 18:36. A failure to see that ‘Judah’ in this passage isn’t the same as in Zechariah 12:2, results in some very imaginative interpretations.’
Baldwin, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The very fact that Judah is among the enemy is turned to advantage. As instantaneously as fire ignites dry tinder and ripe sheaves, so will Judah inflict devastation on the enemy while Jerusalem watches. ‘However, it is God’s wrath and not theirs, that is the fire which devours the adversaries.’ Exactly this same thought is found in the New Testament, Revelation 11:5.’
Although the N.I.V. uses the word ‘dwellings’, Zechariah 12:7, the K.J.V. uses the word ‘tents’, which gives us a better understanding of what the Lord means here. Those who live in tents are those who are the poorest in society, the outcasts of society. Those who live in contrast with others who live in palaces and fortified cities. These are the people whom Christ spoke to who would inherit the kingdom of God, Luke 6:20 / Galatians 3:28 / James 2:5.
Jesus was born of the house of David, Zechariah 12:7, so that He would reign on the throne of David from heaven, Acts 2:22-36. The house of David would survive until the Seed came forth from the seedline of David. The survival of the people would be to the honour of God, not to the honour of the people. The Jews had forgotten that everything was about bringing honour to God, not about bringing honour to themselves as a people, Matthew 20:26.
The house of David would be ‘like God’, Zechariah 12:8, is a reference to the fact that Jesus was the Son of God who was born of the house of David. David was well known for being a fighter with great courage and success. God promises a day when the weakest in Jerusalem will be as mighty as David and the leaders can only be compared in might to God.
Coffman, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The mention of Jerusalem, house of David, and Judah appears confusing until it is recognized that here we have a third usage of Judah already in this chapter! Here Judah stands for the poor, taken from the fact that the environs of Jerusalem contrasted sharply with the affluence and glory of the city itself,’ Matthew 19:30.’
Also notice the house of David would be like the angel of the LORD going before them, Zechariah 12:8. Who is this angel of the Lord? This is a Christophany, which suggests that this is a preincarnate appearance of Christ, Genesis 12:7.
Haynes Jr, in his commentary, says the following.
‘A study of these passages reveals that the Angel of the Lord appeared in human form, Genesis 18:2 / Genesis 22:1-18 / Hebrews 13:2, and performed normal human functions, Genesis 32:24 / Numbers 22:23 / Numbers 22:31, yet he was an awe-inspiring figure, Genesis 32:30 / Judges 6:22 / Judges 13:22, exhibiting divine attributes and prerogatives including predicting the future, Genesis 16:10-12, forgiving sin, Exodus 23:21, and receiving worship, Exodus 3:5 / Judges 13:9-20.’
Just as God had previously destroyed the Assyrians and the Babylonians, when Christ’s kingdom comes, the church, He promises to destroy anyone or any other kingdom which rises up against the spiritual Jerusalem, the church, Zechariah 12:9.
When the nation of Israel was to come to an end and cease to exist as a nation, God would pour out His Spirit of grace and supplication, Zechariah 12:10 / Isaiah 11:2. This is an obvious reference to the events of Pentecost, Joel 2:28-32 / Acts 2:16-17. God is going to move among His people and bring saving grace and humble prayer.
Notice they ‘will look on me, the one they have pierced’, Zechariah 12:10. This is an obvious reference to Jesus, John 19:37. When God’s Spirit comes they will look to Jesus, the One who was pierced, Acts 2:23 / Acts 2:36 / Revelation 1:7.
It was the Jews who pierced Him, Psalm 22:16, and they were more than happy to have the responsibility lay with themselves, Matthew 27:25. It was the Romans who pierced His side to make sure He was dead, John 19:34. In Revelation 1:7, John quotes from Zechariah 12:10-13:1.
Kercheville, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The meaning in Zechariah 12, is very important to understanding what the book of Revelation means. Notice that Zechariah 12:10, says that God is going to pour out a spirit of grace and mercy on the Jews. The Jews are mourning because they have pierced the Messiah. The picture is weeping for repentance because they have pierced the Messiah. God is going to pour out mercy and grace so that they can repent. Zechariah 13:1, clarifies that God is going to open a fountain to cleanse them from their sins and uncleanness. When we read the phrase, ‘those who pierced him,’ we must understand that the scriptures are pointing to the Jewish nation. They will seek repentance, and God will give that opportunity.’
Deane, in his commentary, says the following.
‘When the Jews crucified the Messiah, him who was God and Man. Piercing Christ was the piercing of God himself. Jesus said, ‘He that hath seen me hath seen the Father’, and Jesus is called God a full dozen times in the Greek New Testament. The unique application of this passage to Jesus Christ can never be effectively denied. An apostle made that application of it in the gospel, where John quoted this place as proof that the Scriptures were fulfilled in the events occurring in connection with the crucifixion of Christ, saying, ‘They shall look upon him whom they pierced, John 19:37. This is an interpretive quotation in which the inspired apostle melded the meaning of the two principal clauses (look unto me, and him whom they pierced), indicating that God and ‘him whom they pierced’ are thought of as one, and that the one thought of is Jesus Christ. Such an instructive use of the passage by John makes it impossible to accept the notion that the apostle, ‘may not have been intending to do more than give the general sense’. John’s quotation does far more than that. For us, his words, inspired by God, are the end of the matter. One word from such a source is worth more than the concurring opinions of all human councils.’
Hailey, in his commentary, says the following.
‘There is clearly depicted a tragedy occurring in the family of David when some leading personage in the family would be smitten, Zechariah 13:7, his hands would be pierced, Zechariah 12:10 / Zechariah 13:6, a fountain for sin will be opened, Zechariah 13:1. It was to happen in the day when the house of David shall be as God, Zechariah 12:8. Only One member of David’s family was ever God. That One was Jesus. This identifies the Person here referred to as the ‘Branch’ of Zechariah 3:6, who would remove the sin of the earth in ‘one day’, Zechariah 3:9, and he would rule from sea to sea and the uttermost parts of the earth, Zechariah 9:6-10. Here is an amazing forecast in detail of the Death of Jesus, in no wise applicable to any other known person.’
Notice also, that they will ‘mourn him as one who mourns for an only child’, Zechariah 12:10 / Jeremiah 6:26 / Amos 8:10. The ‘weeping in Jerusalem as great as the weeping of Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo,’ Zechariah 12:11. This was the greatest sorrow, which had fallen on Judah because Josiah was the last hope of its declining kingdom, 2 Kings 23:29 / 2 Chronicles 35:20-25. The people greatly mourned his death, Zechariah 12:12, but there would also be great mourning over the crucified Christ, Luke 23:48.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following about the families.
‘This sorrow should be universal but also individual, the whole land, and that, family by family, the royal family in the direct line of its kings, and in a branch from Nathan, a son of David and whole brother of Solomon, 1 Chronicles 3:5, which was continued on in private life yet was still to be an ancestral line of Jesus, Luke 3:31, in like way the main priestly family from Levi, and a subordinate line from a grandson of Levi, ‘the family of Shimei’, Numbers 3:23, and all the remaining families, each with their separate sorrow, each according to Joel‘s call, ‘let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber and the bride out of her closet’, Joel 2:16, each denying himself the tenderest solaces of life.’
These leading families would be representative of all families of Israel, Zechariah 12:11-13, and years later after Peter preached his message about Jesus, they mourned because of what they had done to Jesus, Acts 2:36-41.